Leadership

Sunil Bharti Mittal

Founder and Chairman

Sunil Bharti Mittal is the Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading conglomerates with diversified interests in telecom, insurance, real estate, agri and food, besides other ventures. Bharti has joint ventures with several global leaders: Singtel, SoftBank, AXA, Del Monte amongst others.

Bharti Airtel, the group’s flagship company, is amongst the world’s largest telecommunications companies, offering mobile, fixed broadband and digital TV solutions to over 383.5 million customers across India, South Asia and Africa.

Sunil has been the pioneer of the mobile revolution in India. At a time when mobile telecom was considered inaccessible for the masses, Bharti Airtel revolutionized the business model to offer affordable voice and data services. Starting from operations in one Indian city in 1994, to presence across 17 countries today, Bharti Airtel has transformed the quality of lives of millions of people globally, providing connectivity and digital empowerment. The company continues to focus on driving data as the ensuing growth frontier, and is leading the rollout of next generation data networks across India and Africa.

Sunil is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors, awarded to individuals for demonstrating distinguished services of high order. He has also been awarded Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Honor – the utmost honor accorded by the institute to its alumni. He is the recipient of GSMA’s prestigious Chairman award, besides being decorated with numerous industry honors. Sunil has been conferred Honorary Doctorates by several leading universities in India and UK.

Sunil serves on many international bodies and think-tanks- he is the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Chairman of GSM Association (GSMA), Member: International Business Council-WEF, Telecom Board of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Commissioner of the Broadband Commission and International Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). He is a Member - Global Board of Advisors at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a Trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and on the Board of Qatar Foundation Endowment. He was the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the premier industry body in India in 2007-08.

Sunil is closely associated with spearheading the Indian industry’s global trade, collaboration and policy - he has served on the Prime Minister of India’s Council on Trade & Industry. He is also a member of the India-US, India-UK and India-Japan, India-Sweden CEO Forums. He is Co-Chair of the India-Africa Business Council and India-Sri Lanka CEO Forum.

Deeply associated with the cause of education, Sunil is on Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council, Board of Dean’s Advisors at HBS and Governing Board of the Indian School of Business.

Sunil believes that a responsible corporate has a duty to give back to the community in which it operates. This belief has resulted in Bharti Foundation, which operates 254 schools as well as remedial centers to impart holistic education to over 1,00,000 under-privileged children in rural India. Sunil was ranked among the Top 25 Philanthropists in the World in 2009 by the Barron’s Magazine. He is also a Member of the Board of Trustees of Qatar’s Education Above All Foundation.

Rakesh Bharti Mittal

Vice-Chairman

Rakesh Bharti Mittal is Vice-Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading business groups with interests in telecom, agri-food business, financial services, realty, and communication & media devices.

Bharti Airtel, a group company, is among the leading global telecom service providers with operations in 17 countries across Asia and Africa and has over 383.5 million customers. Bharti Infratel, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, is a leading provider of passive telecom infrastructure in India. Bharti has joint ventures with several global leaders: Singtel, SoftBank, AXA, Del Monte and Brightstar.

Rakesh is the Chairman of Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Bharti AXA General Insurance and FieldFresh Foods. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Bharti Airtel and Managing Director of Bharti Realty Holdings.

Rakesh is currently the President Designate of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and a member of the CII National Council since 1999. Rakesh has been the Chairman of CII CSR Council, Development Initiative Council, National Council on Agriculture, CII Public Policy Council and the Membership Council. He has also served as a member of several CII National Committees as well as the Chairman of its Northern Regional Council.

Rakesh is a member of India Pakistan Joint Business Forum (IPJBF), Founders Circle - Brookings India and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He is also a member of Board of Governors at Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA). In the past, he served as a member of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). He has also served as member of the Society of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the National Food Processing Development Council (NFPDC), MoFPI, Government of India.

A passionate advocate of right to good education, Rakesh serves on Boards of several educational institutions. He is on the Board of Indian School of Business (ISB) and Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Bharti Institute of Public Policy at ISB, Mohali. He is a Member of the Court at Bennett University and Member of the Executive Council at Uttarakhand Open University. Rakesh is the Co-Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology & Management. He is the Chairman of the Governing Council of Sat Paul Mittal School. Rakesh also serves as member of the Managing Society and Governing Board of Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana.

In the past, he has served on the Advisory Council of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Delhi, a member of the Board of Governors of Thapar University, Punjab and the Punjab Education Development Board. Rakesh served as a member of the ‘Round Table on School Education’ for Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India. He also served as a member of the International Advisory Council of Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, USA and the Executive Council of YMCA University of Science and Technology. Rakesh was also a member of India – Canada CEOs Forum and Punjab Investment Advisory Council (PIAC).

Rakesh believes that a responsible corporate has a duty to give back to the community in which it operates. He is a Life Trustee and the Co-Chairman of Bharti Foundation. Bharti Foundation’s education programs reach out to over 1,50,000 children from socially and economically challenged backgrounds. The flagship Satya Bharti School Program offers free quality education through 254 (Primary, Elementary and Senior Secondary) Schools that provide quality education to underprivileged children. These schools provide free mid-day meals, books and uniforms to all the children.

Rakesh has been awarded the Honorary Doctor of Civil Law Degree by Newcastle University, UK. He is a recipient of several awards including the prestigious ’Horasis – Indian Business Leader of the Year 2016 Award (Internationalization), ‘Institute of Engineers - Engineering Excellence Award 2004’, and ‘LMA - Entrepreneur of the year Award 1992’.

He also serves as Honorary Consul for Republic of Sierra Leone in India.

Rajan Bharti Mittal

Vice-Chairman

Rajan Bharti Mittal is the Vice-Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading conglomerates with diversified interests in telecom, insurance, real estate, agri and food, besides other ventures. Bharti has joint ventures with several global leaders: Singtel, SoftBank, AXA, Del Monte amongst others.

Bharti Airtel, the group’s flagship company, is amongst the world’s largest telecommunications companies, offering mobile, fixed broadband and digital TV solutions to over 383.5 million customers across India, South Asia and Africa.

Born in 1960, Rajan joined Bharti Enterprises after graduating from Punjab University. An alumnus of Harvard Business School, he is actively involved in overseeing the activities of the group at the corporate level. With his rich experience in the marketing function, he is also involved in many of the new business ventures of the Group.

Rajan serves as a member of several industry associations and policymaking bodies. He is currently on the Board of Trustees of Brookings Institution, the world’s oldest and most prestigious think tank and a member of the President’s Council on International Activities (PCIA), Yale University. In 2013, he was the President of ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) India. He was also the President of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) for the year 2010 - 2011 and is currently a Member of its Executive & Steering Committees. In FICCI, he was Chairman of Retail Committee in 2007, Infrastructure Committee in 2006, Telecom & IT Committee in 2004 & 2005, and Telecom Committee in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Rajan was the President of Association of Basic Telecom Operators (now known as Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India - AUSPI) for 1999-2000.

Rajan has been honored with the “Indian Business Leader of the Year Award 2011” by Horasis, The Global Visions Community and has also been awarded the “Leonardo International Prize 2012” by Comitato Leonardo, the Italian Quality Committee.

Akhil Gupta

Akhil Gupta is Vice Chairman of Bharti Enterprises and Executive Chairman, Bharti Infratel Ltd. He has been closely associated with various strategic, financial, mergers and acquisitions and business performance issues and transformational initiatives for the group.

Akhil has played a pivotal role in Bharti’s phenomenal growth having been closely involved from the very beginning in the group’s the telecommunication services business. He has led the formation of various partnerships for Bharti with leading international companies and investors.

Akhil has spearheaded several innovative initiatives that include the outsourcing deals undertaken by the group in the areas of information technology (IT), network management, outsourcing of Call Centres management and separation of tower infrastructure of Bharti Airtel and forming Indus Towers a Joint Venture with Vodafone and Idea, which has become the largest tower company in the world.

He is currently Chairman of TAIPA (Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association of India) and President of TSSC (Telecom Sector Skill Council of India). Akhil represents the Indian telecom industry and Bharti regularly at various forums and seminars in India and abroad.

He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification with over 30 years of professional experience, and attended an “Advanced Management Program” at Harvard Business School in 2002.

Akhil Gupta has been awarded 'CEO of the Year' at the National Telecom Awards 2012. He was also honoured for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Telecom Sector’ by the industry’s leading telecom magazine – tele.net

Gopal Vittal

Gopal Vittal is currently serving as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (India & South Asia) of Bharti Airtel Limited. In his role as MD & CEO of the country’s largest privately integrated telecom operator he is responsible for defining and delivering the business strategy and providing overall leadership for Airtel’s India & South Asia operations.

Under Gopal’s leadership Airtel has won multiple awards across Corporate Governance, Treasury, Sustainability and Innovation. Airtel has been recognized as the second most valuable brand in the country by Brand Equity.

Gopal was previously with Bharti Enterprises where he was the Group Director of Special Projects. In this capacity, he worked towards formulating and supporting Airtel’s International strategy and expansion. He also held the post of Director, Marketing at Bharti Airtel where he made significant contributions towards driving revenue growth, market leadership and building Airtel as an iconic brand.

In addition, Gopal has also been with Hindustan Unilever, where he headed the US$3.5bn Home and Personal Care Division. Over a twenty year tenure at Unilever, he worked on several national and global assignments across sales, marketing and general management.

Gopal is an alumnus of Madras Christian College and has completed his MBA from IIM, Kolkata.

Raghunath Mandava

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa

Raghunath Mandava, took over as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer – Airtel Africa with effect from January 1, 2017.

Raghu, an Airtel veteran, joined Airtel Africa as the Chief Operating Officer from 1st April, 2016 and having well settled in this role, took full leadership control.

He joined Airtel Africa from Airtel India & South Asia where he was Director – Customer Experience.

During his tenure as Director – Customer Experience, Raghu brought in new thinking and innovation, enabling Airtel India to take big leaps in the experience scores, while costs were reduced significantly. Previously, he has had successful stints in several roles such as Operations Director, Chief Marketing Officer Mobile – Airtel India, CEO – Rajasthan, COO – Tamil Nadu (TN) etc. His stint in Rajasthan saw our RMS in that Circle, a 6-player market, leap from 25 per cent to 42 per cent in 3 years.

Prior to his joining Airtel in 2003, Raghu worked in Hindustan Unilever in several Sales, Marketing roles and general management roles.

Raghu is Indian, married and has two daughters. He is a B.Tech in Electronics from IIT Kharagpur (1988 batch) and an MBA from IIM - Bangalore (1990 batch).

Devender Singh Rawat

Devender Singh Rawat or DS, as he is commonly known, is the Managing Director & CEO of Bharti Infratel Limited and is known as a profound leader within the telecom infrastructure sector. He holds more than 25 years of in-depth experience in handling technology, rollouts and regulatory interfaces within the areas of telecom infrastructure. He is known for his versatile understanding of Telecom infrastructure sector – from both Operator and Supplier perspectives.

As the Managing Director of one of the India’s largest telecom tower infrastructure companies, DS drives business augmentation, operations & service excellence at Bharti Infratel. Under his leadership, the Company achieved a major milestone of being listed on the two Indian bourses in December 2012. He has successfully advanced its pioneering initiatives like the GreenTowers P7 programme, which has today expanded its green footprint to one of the largest within the world.

His professional interests lie in building and developing teams, and combining strategic thinking with strong execution skills. As the MD & CEO of Bharti Infratel, he leads the company towards the vision of being the best and most innovative tower infrastructure provider globally.

DS has worked across various capacities at Ericsson, Huawei, and the erstwhile mobile operator Escotel. DS holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering; and comes from a Defense services background, having worked as an officer with the Indian Air Force. He has done an ‘Advanced Management Programme’ at the Wharton University of Pennsylvania.

Soumen Ghosh

Managing Director - Financial Services, Bharti Enterprises Limited

Soumen Ghosh, also known as Sam Ghosh has over 35 years of experience in financial services. Before joining Bharti, Soumen Ghosh served as the Executive Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of Reliance Capital Limited until March 2017.

Soumen Ghosh joined Reliance Capital in 2008; prior to that, Soumen Ghosh was the CEO of Bajaj Allianz's India operations for both Life and General insurance and went on to become the Regional CEO of Middle East and India Sub Continent region of Allianz SE. He spent ten years in Australia in various capacities with Allianz from CFO to managing subsidiary companies as well as operations in the Pacific Rim.

Soumen Ghosh is a Chartered Accountant from England and a Mechanical Engineer. In his spare time, he likes playing tennis and swimming.

Yogesh Bellani

Chief Executive Officer, FieldFresh Foods Pvt Ltd

Yogesh Bellani is the Chief Executive Officer of FieldFresh Foods Pvt Ltd. He has a vast experience in the food industry, expanding over 15 years. He has extensively traveled across the world and has developed in-depth knowledge of diverse markets like India, South East and Far East Asia, North America, Western Europe, South Africa, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius and the UAE.

Under his vision and leadership, Del Monte Foods Business has become one of the fastest growing food and beverage brand in the category in a short span of five years. Currently, Del Monte is ranks third in Ketchup & Sauces segment and is the No. 1 Pasta and Packaged Fruits brand in India.

Yogesh has been instrumental in the setting up of the Company’s integrated and highly automated state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in Hosur, Tamil Nadu for culinary and beverage production.
He has also built in a robust export business catering to top international QSR brands globally. Under his guidance, Del Monte has grown its B2B business to become one of the most preferred partners for top international QSR chain in India and won several awards and recognitions.

Prior to FieldFresh Foods, Yogesh was in charge of the non-rice division of Kohinoor Pvt Ltd, where he led the project conceptualization and implementation including technology/machinery/manpower selection, project planning and financial viability of the Ambient and Frozen food plant in Bhalgarh. He also launched Kohinoor’s ‘Ready to Eat’ products rolled out from this facility, across India and international markets, and also launched a range of premium spices and seasonings under the brand. During his tenure, Kohinoor was selected by Target Corporation US as their exclusive partners for ‘Indian Culinary’ products, and also won a three year ASDA-Walmart contract for manufacturing of Premium Oriental Cook and Premium Indian Cook in Sauces.

Yogesh has been a merit holders throughout his academics. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from University of Pune and pursued his Master’s in Business Administration from BIM Tech. He has also completed a One-Year Special Management Program for Working Managers at IIM - Calcutta and attended an Advanced Management Program from INSEAD and Leadership Development Program at Centre of Creative Leadership, Singapore.

Passionate towards teaching, he is a guest lecturer at some of India’s leading Business schools. He visits institutes like IIM, IMT Ghaziabad, Birla Institute of Management Technology, Fore School of Management to share with the students his expert knowledge of International Business Strategy and Marketing.

Sanjay Bahl

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Centum Learning

Sanjay Bahl is the Managing Director and CEO of Centum Learning, an ISO 9001:2015 certified skilling MNC which focuses on Corporate Training, Livelihood Skilling, Skills at Schools & Colleges and CSR Partnerships. With over 1400 learning and development specialists and their domain expertise in 21 industry verticals Centum has skilled more than 1.2 million people across 15 countries.

Centum has been widely recognized in several fora- it has received ‘Excellence in Training’ award from ‘World HRD Congress’, has featured as the ‘Top 15 Emerging Leaders in Training Outsourcing’ worldwide amongst several other prestigious awards and is in the Top 10 ‘Great Place to Work’ for the year 2017-18 amongst companies which feature in the gold standard lists and rankings that identify and classify the world’s best workplaces.

Sanjay has over 30 years of rich experience in different sectors, with extensive involvement in education, training, technology and skilling space. During this period, he avidly nurtured government and industry body relations for influencing policy changes which is helping re-energize the country’s workforce today and preparing youth for entry level jobs and growth opportunities in the domestic and international markets. He has also led strategic and joint venture partnerships in B2B, B2G, and B2C businesses in consumer electronics retail, telecom services, education, digital /on-line training and skilling domains.

Sanjay’s active contribution to key Skills Forums like CII, ASSOCHAM, SSCs, NSDC, related associations and forums is widely acknowledged by the industry. Additionally, he presented a paper at ISB Hyderabad on “Innovative Solutions towards Market Awareness and Technology for a Sustainable Retail (student pay) model for Skills programs, in 2013. He is a certified Assessor for “People Development Centre” by SHL, London, UK and participated in “Creative Leadership” certification program for Top management, conducted by CCL Singapore/ USA.

In his previous role, Sanjay was the President and Director of NIIT’s Skills Initiative JV and the National Channel Head of their Skills and Career group. He has also been engaged with brands such as Crompton Greaves, CASIO and MTS. Additionally, he was a part of Bharti Airtel for over 10 years, where he held multiple assignments.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani and an MBA with a specialization in Marketing.

Sushil Kumar Sayal

CEO & MD – Bharti Realty Limited

Sushil Kumar Sayal is Bharti Realty's Managing Director and CEO since 2014, providing leadership while conceptualizing and implementing a scalable business strategy.

Sayal has experience of more than 30 years in the real estate industry. He was the Founding Director and CEO of Alpha G Corp (2004-2014) and Head of Operations – Mahindra/GESCO (1993-2004) prior to that. His realty skills were honed with major developers such as DLF and Ansals in the early years in his career.

As a Fellow of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS) UK, he led teams of highly-accomplished professionals, toward setting new benchmarks in residential and commercial development. One of Sayal’s major contributions to the sector has been his role in establishing the Real Estate Asset Management (REAM) model in India.

He recently won the ‘Most Enterprising CEO’ and ‘Lifetime Achievement’ awards, in an initiative by White Page International.

It has been Sayal’s ardent desire to introduce professionalism in the real estate sector. For this Sayal has authored the book ‘Inside Unreal Estate’’: A journey through India’s most controversial sector’. The book shares his experiences in the unlevel playing field of the Indian real estate for over three decades.

Vijay Chadda

Chief Executive Officer, Bharti Foundation

Vijay Chadda is the Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading business groups with interests in telecom, agri business, financial services, retail, realty, and communication & media devices.

Bharti Foundation was set up in 2000 with a vision ‘to help underprivileged children and young people of our country realize their potential’. The Satya Bharti School Program, its flagship initiative, aims to provide quality education, free of cost, to underprivileged children in rural India, with a special focus on the girl child. Continuing on the tradition of contributing towards the nation’s agenda, the Foundation initiated ‘Satya Bharti Abhiyan’ in 2014, to improve sanitation facilities in Ludhiana District. It has now extended its footprints to Amritsar District. ‘Nyaya Bharti’ was launched in 2015 to provide legal and financial assistance to deserving underprivileged under-trials languishing in jails across the country for petty offences.

As the CEO of Bharti Foundation, Vijay has played a key role in project expansion and enhancement of quality standards and system efficiency, while constantly keeping the team morale high to deliver their best in challenging circumstances. He has led the development of the organization and its education programs at primary, elementary and senior secondary standards. Through his experience, clear vision and strategic thinking, he has also been able to establish a successful and replicable model of Public Private Partnership. The Satya Bharti School Program provides free quality education to over 45,000 children from marginalized communities in rural areas, through its 254 schools (249 primary/elementary and five senior secondary schools) across six Indian states.

Under Vijay’s leadership, learnings and best practices of the Satya Bharti School Program have been taken to the Government schools, under the aegis of the Satya Bharti Quality Support Program and Satya Bharti Learning Centre Program. While the aim is to improve the overall quality of the schooling experience, his guidance has broadened its scope from running its own schools to engaging deeply with the Government and mentoring Government schools to enhance the quality of education through need-based interventions. The Learning Centre program brings out of school children back into schools and ensures continued quality education for children. Through its education initiatives, the Foundation has till date impacted over 3,00,000 students, engaged 12,000+ educators across 2,025 schools, in 3700+ villages in 13 Indian states.

While the focus remains on quality education, Vijay also spearheads the Foundation’s ‘Satya Bharti Abhiyan’ and the ‘Nyaya Bharti’ initiatives. Through Satya Bharti Abhiyan, there has been a remarkable improvement in household sanitation facilities and in the provision of toilets for girls in the Government schools, targeting the focus area of rural and urban Ludhiana in the first phase. Approx. 18,000 individual toilets have been handed over in Ludhiana, including 14 girls’ toilets in Government schools identified by the Punjab Education Department, benefitting more than 87,000 individuals. With ‘Nyaya Bharti’ the primary objective is to provide legal and financial aid to underprivileged undertrials and first time offenders accused of petty offences, in addition to increasing awareness on their legal rights.

Vijay has over forty years of professional experience in different fields. He has served in the Indian Army for twenty years and has headed some of the leading corporates in the travel and hospitality industry. It was his innate desire to contribute to society in a meaningful and substantive way that drew him from the corporate world to the Foundation. His army background has inspired many processes and events to inculcate a sense of patriotism and integrity within the school program.

A graduate from the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Pune, India and the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College Toronto, Canada; Vijay has also completed his M.Sc. in Defence Studies from Madras University.

Vijay has served on the board of significant Travel & Tourism Associations and is a part of various National Committees in the area of Education, Skill Development and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He has represented the organization at various renowned national forums. Vijay is a member of the India – Malaysia CEOs Forum (CII) and is also on the Advisory Committee of leading schools and educational institutions.

Kavin Bharti Mittal

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Hike Messenger

Kavin Bharti Mittal is the Founder and CEO of Hike Messenger. With over 100 million registered users exchanging over 40 billion messages per month, Hike is the only successful Indian messaging platform with such scale. Along the way, Kavin has raised over USD 250 million in capital from top tier investors such as Tencent, Foxconn, Tiger Global, SoftBank, Bharti and some of Silicon Valley’s top tech veterans. In August 2016, Hike became the 10th Indian company to receive a valuation of over USD 1 billion. It also became the fastest company in India to attain a Unicorn status, having reached the milestone in just 3.7 years. With this milestone, Kavin also became the “youngest Indian to create a $1B+ company in India (28 at the time)”.

Kavin launched Hike in December 2012 with the simple idea that in a mobile first market like India, where the first screen for most would be a mobile device, one could bring India online through messaging. Hike today, as a result, is a new kind of messaging app that not only simplifies how people connect with one another, but is also changing the way they interact with content and services on mobile. As someone whose passion lies in creating top class teams and building products for mobile first Indians, Kavin believes that messaging will do for mobile, what the browser did for the desktop times a 100.

Prior to Hike, Kavin founded AppSpark at the age of 20 in his last year of University, with a belief that smartphones would change the way people live their lives. In 2009, AppSpark launched ‘Movies Now’ in partnership with movietickets.com, the first ever movie ticketing app on the iPhone that would go on to change the way consumers bought movie tickets on the go. Later, Apple recognized Movies Now as 'One of the 10 Essential Movie Goer Apps' for the iPhone due to its focus on user experience and design. At AppSpark, Kavin was dabbling in mobile payments in 2009 when it was unheard of.

Kavin completed his Masters in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Management (M.Eng.) from Imperial College, London. During his summer breaks at college, he interned at some of the world’s leading companies such as McLaren Racing, Google and Goldman Sachs.

Ramit Bharti Mittal

Chief Executive Officer, Gourmet Investments(P) Limited

Ramit Bharti Mittal is the CEO of Gourmet Investments (P) Limited, a company promoted by the Bharti Family Office. Gourmet Investments and PizzaExpress Holdings have a 50:50 JV for operating PizzaExpress chain of restaurants in India.

Ramit is also the founder of Bulldog Entertainment, a media production and format licensing company representing globally renowned formats such as ‘The Apprentice’, ‘India’s Next Top Model’ and ‘Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader’. Before founding Bulldog Entertainment, Ramit worked with Bharti Retail, where he set up the brand proposition and worked directly on the genesis of the Easyday brand.

Prior to Bharti Retail, he worked at the IBM headquarters in Armonk NY in the Marketing Intelligence unit where was part of the team that assessed and activated IBM competitor landscape in North America as well as assimilate IBM’s acquisitions in Europe.

Ramit started his career with Y&R Singapore, where he was managing account planning for clients such as Citibank and Chivas Regal. He has also worked with Teletech Services and trained with leading companies like Hero Honda and British Telecom. Ramit has done his schooling in Delhi and has an MBA degree from Southern Methodist University, Dallas (Texas).

Mukesh Bhavnani

Group General Counsel

Mukesh Bhavnani is the Group General Counsel of Bharti Enterprises. In his role as the Group General Counsel he is responsible for strategic and high impact legal policy and structuring across all Bharti businesses, litigation related to key matters and M&A.

Mukesh has over 39 years of varied experience across multiple industries including mining and oil &gas, insurance, infrastructure, media, and consumer goods. Mukesh has inter alia worked with Vedanta Resources Plc, Essar Group, Sony Entertainment Television, Max New York Life Insurance, Coca-Cola India, Jumbo Group in Dubai, Godrej Soaps.

Mukesh is a Graduate in Law and Commerce from Bombay University and a qualified Company Secretary.

Deven Khanna

Group Director - Chairman's Office

Deven Khanna is the Group Director, Chairman's Office and is responsible for driving key initiatives and strategic projects across all businesses of the group.

Deven has nearly 30 years of experience in finance and general management. He started as the Group Financial Controller in 2004 and later became Corporate Director - Finance in 2008 before taking on the current role in 2011. He has spearheaded financial reporting, business planning, revenue assurance, taxation, risk management and a host of strategic projects including structuring initiatives.

Prior to joining Bharti, Deven worked with Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd as the Chief Financial Officer for a business portfolio including sugar, steam turbines, sugar machinery, water treatment, micro hydel and oil drilling.

Deven is a commerce graduate from Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University and is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Harjeet Kohli

CFO - Emerging Businesses

Starting as a Corporate & Investment Banker & Finance professional leading into business roles, Harjeet has 21 years of work experience. As the CFO of Bharti Enterprises, he sponsors the business value proposition & growth for all of Group's Emerging Businesses, across Insurance, Real Estate, FMCG, Tech & Distribution & others.

Harjeet has also been a specialist across equity, financing and markets space, both as a banker to large corporates as also as a large cap multinational issuer / corporate & has led the corporate finance function for Airtel & Bharti Group, for all capital structure & equity raising, currency and interest risk management, investments management, and stakeholders’ management – across ratings, debt & equity investors, on a global basis. Harjeet has worked on several strategic projects for Bharti Group, across expansion, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO, QIP, Secondary sales, capital markets debt, equity market – across listed companies (Airtel/ Infratel) & including business/franchise deals in insurance, foods, real estate etc.

Prior to joining Bharti group, he had 12+ years of corporate & investment banking experience at Citigroup [Citibank], across business build-outs, product lead, structuring, sales, relationship management, capital markets & market management. Having played the role of a Trusted Advisor to clients across all their senior needs, organic as well as strategic; complimented well by corporate/ buy side roles across capital management and business - provides him the ability to look at diverse businesses, across industries and varied evolution and situations, for strategic interventions so as to create and enhance value.

Arvind Chopra

Group Director - Internal Assurance

Arvind Chopra is a Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce with Honours, from Shriram College of Commerce, Delhi University. He currently leads the Internal Assurance function at Bharti Enterprises Limited in the capacity of Group Director.

With experience of over 30 years both in India and internationally, in the areas of Internal and External Audit, Corporate Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance, Arvind has been a Partner with reputed and global consulting firms like Price Waterhouse Coopers, LLP (London) and KPMG (India). He has also been the Global Corporate Director & Vice President, Internal Assurance, with Arcelor Mittal in London and Group President – Assurance & Cost Control with the Essar Group. He also had held management positions in Arthur Andersen & Co and Nestle.